Thomas Green fails in bid for release on bail after sex conviction overturned

Thomas Green failed Monday in his bid for release on bail pending his potential retrial on charges he sexually abused three girls, including his granddaughter, in 2008. Videojournalist: James Carbone (Aug. 26, 2013)

Ron Kuby, the attorney for Thomas Green, discusses a failed bid for Green's release on bail pending his potential retrial on charges he sexually abused three girls, including his granddaughter, in 2008. Videojournalist: James Carbone (Aug. 26, 2013)

A Selden grandfather whose sex crime conviction was thrown out on appeal lost a bid for release on bail Monday after a Suffolk judge ruled she no longer had jurisdiction.

Judge Barbara Kahn made the ruling in Riverhead where Thomas Green, 66, was convicted in 2008 of seven counts of sexual abuse and was sentenced by Kahn to 35 years in prison. Monday, she said because the appeal was filed...

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A Selden grandfather whose sex crime conviction was thrown out on appeal lost a bid for release on bail Monday after a Suffolk judge ruled she no longer had jurisdiction.

Judge Barbara Kahn made the ruling in Riverhead where Thomas Green, 66, was convicted in 2008 of seven counts of sexual abuse and was sentenced by Kahn to 35 years in prison. Monday, she said because the appeal was filed in federal court, she had no legal standing to release him.

Green appealed the conviction and on Aug. 12, U.S. District Judge Arthur Spatt threw it out after ruling that Green's attorney was ineffective. The judge said he would free Green unless the Suffolk County district attorney offered to retry him within 90 days.

Green, brought to court from his prison upstate, sat silent through the 30-minute court session Monday.

After the judge's ruling, Green's appellate attorney, Ronald Kuby, bent over, shook his client's hand and said: "A while longer, a while longer."

Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Dana Brown told Kahn that an appeal of Spatt's ruling would be filed Tuesday in the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Kahn said that since Green's appeal was still in the federal court system, any request for release on bail should be made there. Kuby said outside the Riverhead court that he would file a federal request for bail as soon as possible.

During Green's 2008 trial, the girls testified that Green crept into their beds to perform sex acts on them during sleepovers, forced them to perform sex acts on him and forced them to fondle him. These events happened at various times from 1998 to 2003, they testified.